What's Actually Under Your Feet at Red Tail

I've lived twenty minutes from this course my entire life, and I didn't know most of this until I went looking. Turns out the ground under Red Tail's fairways has a much longer story than golf.

Before It Was a Golf Course, It Was Fort Devens

Red Tail sits on land that was once Fort Devens, a U.S. Army installation established in 1917 — built in a matter of weeks to train soldiers heading into World War I. It kept training soldiers through World War II, when it became one of the largest Army bases in New England, processing hundreds of thousands of troops. The base stayed active for decades after, finally closing in 1996, and its footprint — barracks, ammunition bunkers, training grounds — is part of what shaped the terrain Red Tail's architects eventually built around instead of erasing.

That's not incidental. If you've played Hole 17, "Bunkers," you've already walked past physical proof — the sandy waste areas frame old ammunition bunkers left standing from the base's active years. Most courses have to manufacture character. Red Tail inherited some of its most memorable terrain from a completely different purpose.

The Rocket Scientist Who Tested Here First

Here's the detail that made me sit up: in 1929, a physicist named Robert Goddard — now considered the father of modern rocketry — conducted early liquid-fueled rocket tests on what's now this exact stretch of land. Decades before NASA existed, before "rocket science" was even a phrase people used casually, someone was out here testing the technology that eventually got humans to the moon. It's a strange thing to learn about a place you've mostly associated with a good back nine.

A History Worth Knowing, Not Just a Fun Fact

Not everything about this land's history is light trivia. During World War II, Fort Devens was also the site of real struggle — including a 1945 protest by Black women serving in the Women's Army Corps, who refused orders in response to racial discrimination they faced on the base. It's a piece of history that deserves to be told on its own terms, not folded into a golf blog as a footnote. I'm not going to try to do it justice in a few sentences here, but I think it's worth knowing that this ground carried real stakes long before anyone was worrying about a three-putt.

Why This Changes How I See the Course

I've walked this property more times than I can count, mostly thinking about the golf in front of me. Knowing what came before makes we look at it differently — not in a heavy way, exactly, just a more complete one. This wasn't empty land that someone happened to build a golf course on. It's layered. The ammunition bunkers on 17, the open ground on 2, the whole shape of the property — it was all something else first.

I don't think you need to know any of this to enjoy a round at Red Tail. But I think it makes the round better if you do.

Did you know Red Tail sat on Fort Devens before you read this? Let us know in the comments — and if you've got other pieces of local history worth digging into, send them my way.

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Go Find Out For Yourself Reading about Tanks Crossing and Gravel Pit is one thing — playing them is another. If it's been a while since your last round at Red Tail, or you're still working on your own Willies story, there's no better excuse than an open tee sheet.

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Bring the Whole Group Every hole out here has a nickname because someone had a story worth telling about it — and stories are better with a group. Whether it's a corporate outing or a long-overdue guys' trip, Red Tail's ready to give your crew eighteen new ones to argue about.

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Refuel on the Deck Whichever hole got the better of you today, the deck's a pretty good place to relitigate it. Grab a cold drink, order something great, and settle the debate over which name on the scorecard deserves to be feared the most.

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